War is Over, Things Change, Even Between Us
by Lilly Rae
Summary: The hundred year war has been over for about four and a half years. Toph is back living with her parents, relatively happy though extremely bored. The arrival of two old friends is about to change things up, but isn't the war being over suppose to do that
1. Four Years Later

**--- Four ½ Years Later ---**

Toph

I sat in my room, trying to get my maids to stop messing with my hair. It had been four and a half years since the fall of the Fire Lord and the end of the war and a lot had changed.

I could still remember Sokka's reaction when Twinkle Toes and Sugar Queen announced that they were together. Ah, Snoozles never had a more speechless moment.

Oh and when Princess first asked to be in our group, never could there be a more idiotic moment from him, 'Hi, Zuko here.' He really should have thought that out more, or rather less considering he told us later that he had obsessed over trying to say the right thing so much that he practiced it with a frog-lizard who must have thought that it was just a stupid as we did.

And, gods, I wish that I could have seen the look on Azula's face when he own brother attacked her, and won, his prize being that she was in jail.

I was wakened from my musing by one bold maid walking up to me, albeit timidly. "Lady Bei Fong?" she said to try to get my attention.

"Don't.Call.Me.That!" I thundered, "It's Toph, not 'Lady Bei Fong!"

"I'm deeply sorry, but you some visitors," she stuttered.

I rolled my eyes and got up, wondering who would even _want_ to visit me, aside from Katara, Sokka, and Aang, but the couldn't be here.

My parents were no longer _as protective_ but they were still a bit of a pain. They let me have may freedom, I could go were ever I wanted, within the town, they didn't arrest Aang Sokka and Katara for their so called 'kidnap' of me and they were now welcome here.

But my parents were still almost the same parents and that meant that they still wanted a little doll for their daughter, not an Earth Bending Master.

So, I had my freedom, but I was still constricted with their need to keep up my appearance, clothes wise at least. And so, dresses and finery most of the time was what I wore, unwillingly.

I tried running but it was apparent that my dress was not going to let that happen any time soon.

I finally reached the front hall and gasped. I managed a half-run half-jog to the two figures standing side by side. And then with a smile I threw my arms around one of them…the wrong one.

"Um, Little Miss Forward…get off of me," I heard that all too familiarly snarky and hard voice say. _Oh, crap, please tell me that I did not just hug who I think I did,_ I thought to myself. I grimaced, stepped back, taking my arms off of him, all the while blushing.

"Well, Princess, aren't I allowed to be happy to have you here?" I asked him sarcastically.

"No, you are not."

"Well, sorry, I guess that at first I _might_ have mistaken you for Uncle here," I said crossing my arms and furrowing my brow together angrily. I turned away from him angrily and walked over to Iroh.

"Well, it is always nice to have _you_ come, Uncle," I said sweetly, giving Iroh a warm hug.


	2. Talking, Tea, and Bickering

**-Toph-**

"Ah, well I guess that now I really can't call you a little girl anymore, Toph. You've grown so fast since I last saw you," Iroh said.

I smiled at my old friend as we sat around the low table drinking our tea and sitting on simple cushions.

"I wasn't expecting you for another month, and I **definitely** wasn't expecting little Fire Lord Princess to be coming along with you," I said as I took a sip of my tea, still quite a bit flustered after the little incident earlier, you know when I accidentally hugged **Zuko**, who was now the current Fire Lord.

"Well, I just couldn't wait to see you again, my young dear friend. I mean, really, a year and a half without visiting you truly is quite too long," Iroh said to me fondly, then laughing, added, "And Zuko said that he simply just couldn't resist the chance to get you all flustered and fuming." My brow furrowed together in anger as I turned to Zuko, socking him hard in the arm.

"I see that you still have that temper of yours," he said, and I heard him rub his arm.

"And I see that you finally learned how to be an even bigger pain in the butt to me, good for you," I shot back at him, sarcastically clapping my hands.

Meanwhile Iroh began to laugh heartily at the two of us as we bickered just as if I was twelve and he was sixteen again and we were having one of the fights that we use to have constantly back in the beginning when he first joined the gang.

"Well," I said finally calming down, "Do my par-."

"Yes, yes my dear. Your parents know that we are here and have already offered to give us a place to stay, and graciously we accepted," Iroh said, cutting me off swiftly.

"Oh, well, how long will you get to stay?" I questioned.

"Longer than expected, _too_ long in my opinion. Uncle has requested that we stay a month, and unfortunately, your parents were happy to let us stay that long," Zuko answered grumpily. "But, we can stay no longer than that seeing as Uncle and I have to get back to the Fire Nation."

"Oh, no! Do you really have to be leaving so soon?" I said in a mocking tone adding in a fake pout, only to have Iroh burst out into laughter and to have the feeling of Zuko giving me a hard glare that, though I couldn't see it, I could defiantly feel.

I snickered and grinned evilly before picking up my tea, taking a sip, and asking casually, "So, have you heard from any of the others lately?

Sorry that the chapter is so short, I am planning to have the next one up today as well, I just could think of anything else to add into the chapter, though the next chapter will be longer. And it has a bit more of that wonderful Toko fluff that I am sure that you all love.

But, until next time,

Lilly Rae


	3. Sparring, Feelings, and an Invite

**-Toph-**

"It seems that you have lost your touch," Zuko said as we sparred in on of the fields outside of Gaoling.

"I am totally just going easy on you," I said truthfully…or maybe not so truthfully. I heard him laugh and then with a flash, he vanished from my 'sight'.

"Hey, that isn't fair! I can't tell where you are!" I complained. _He must have learned how to hover with steam like Aang was trying to show him last time_, I thought silently to myself.

Suddenly, a warm finger touched the back of my neck just as the Fire Lord reappeared into my 'sight' behind me. I tensed up for a moment as I felt him lean in closer to me, his breath on my ear.

"Give in?" he whispered in my ear, his breath feeling warm as it tickled the inside of my ear.

"Fine, I give," I said with a sigh, flopping down onto the soft ground below me, worn out from our heated spar.

"Hey, Zuko, about what time is it?" I asked as he flopped down beside me.

"Late evening, I guess," he said, shifting into a more comfortable position.

I sighed, with exhaustion, and with a heavy heart.

Zuko and Uncle had already been here two and a half weeks and I found that I would miss them both dearly when they left. I had grown so attached to both of them since they came here, especially Zuko, and it was making it so hard for me to even think about the fact that they would have to leave.

Again, I sighed, a sigh filled with sadness.

"What is it, Miss Forward?" Zuko asked, using the nick name he had inadvertently given me when he had arrived.

"Oh, nothing," I lied…badly.

"Toph, I know you well enough to know when something is bothering you," he said.

"Oh Zuko, it's just that you and Uncle only have a little while left here and then you have to leave," I spilled out for him. I felt Zuko sit up and turn to me.

"That is what's bothering you? Oh Toph," he said with a sigh, "When I first got here you couldn't wait for me to leave, and now you're getting all sentimental about it. What the heck is going on?"

I felt my face start to heat up as I blushed. "Well, it's just that we've grown a lot closer than we were before," I said, only making me blush more from my own words.

_Gods, why do I feel so shy around Zuko now? He's my friend, my sparring partner, I shouldn't feel shy around him! Well, maybe I- wait! No way, I so don't._

"Toph?"

"Hmm?"

"How would you like to come back for a visit with us to the Fire Nation?" Zuko asked hesitantly.

"WHAT?!" I bolted upright and turned to where I knew he sat.

"I understand if you don't want to. It's just I already asked your parents and they said that they were fine with it if you were," Zuko said hastily. I felt that his heart was beating rather fast as if he were nervous. I grinned a wide smile.

"Of course I want to come, you big goof. Good god! If you keep this up you'll be as big of a goof as Sokka," I said laughing as I gave him a big hug. When I did I felt him heat up and his heart beat even faster than before.

"Come on. I have to get home. If I don't my parents with give me the 'you-shouldn't-be-out-with-an-older-man' lecture even if you are the Fire Lord and a close friend," I grumbled, jumping up to my feet. Zuko got up as well and together we made our way back to my home…

I told you that it was fluffy! Don't you just love them together? ) Next chappie probably tomorrow! Bye!


	4. Realization For One, Headach For Another

-Zuko-

**-Zuko-**

"What is it about her?" I asked myself aloud as I lied in bed, "She's just grown up so much since I last saw her. She so much more mature, inside and out. I never thought I'd see the day that it was a good thing to see Toph everyday."

Toph had been on my mind a lot lately, of course, I had been seeing her everyday. However, she was on my mind not as just being around, but as a girl I was trying to impress, like I had done with Mei. Of course, Toph was a lot more fun to be around than the latter. She was…dare I even think it, beautiful, Toph, that is. But she was three or four years younger than I was. I wasn't supposed to even be thinking about her like this.

I sighed. "I can't believe I'm saying this, and I never thought in a hundred years that I would be thinking this but…I think I'm in love with Toph Bei Fong."

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**-Toph-**

"Are you ready yet?" I stretched my leg from where I was laying on my bed down so that it touched the hard stone floor of my room. It was Zuko. Two weeks had flown by and it seemed like only yesterday Zuko and I had been sparing…Well, we actually _had_ been sparing the day before but that's beside the point. The point was that I was finally going to the Fire Nation with Zuko and Uncle. Two weeks in the Fire Nation with Zuko! ….and Uncle Iroh. This was going to be fantastic.

"Come along, Miss Blind Bandit," Zuko said jokingly.

Ah, he noticed that I was wearing my Fire Nation Blind Bandit clothes. I had gotten them a month or so after the war, and surprisingly, they still fit…sort of. It was a 'bit' tight on my hips and…um 'higher up'.

"You know what, Zuko? I'm going to have to get another one of these while I'm in the Fire Nation. These are almost too small now," I said walking out into the hallway with my hotheaded friend.

"Well, of course. You got that when you were what? Twelve, thirteen. You were a little kid back then. You're what, like seventeen, eighteen, now?" Zuko said.

"Sixteen," I corrected, smiling as I said it.

"Yeah…Wait! You're only sixteen?!"

"Yep."

"Wow!"

"Oh, stop making such a big deal out of it. Just because I'm still three and a half years younger than you doesn't mean that I can't kick your butt," I said crossing my arms. I felt the carriage roll up and began to wonder fleetingly of how I would even be able to get in without breaking my neck in my tight clothes.

"Need some help?" Zuko asked.

"No, of course not," I said, earth bending myself up and walking strait into the side of the caggiage.

_**THUNK**_

I staggered backwards falling into Zuko's arms.

"Of course you don't need any help," he said sarcastically. I could practically feel him smirking…

"Ha ha ha. Just help me in."


End file.
